Imidazol-1-sulfonate esters preparation

Imidazolides of aromatic sulfonic acids react much more slowly in alcoholysis reactions than the carboxylic acid imidazolides. Although the reaction with phenols is quantitative when a melt is heated to 100 °C for several hours, with alcohols under these conditions only very slight alcoholysis is observed. In the presence of 0.05 equivalents (catalytic amount) of sodium ethoxide, imidazole sodium, of NaNH2, however, imidazolides of sulfonic acids react with alcohols almost quantitatively and exothermically at room temperature in a very short time to form sulfonic acid esters (sulfonates). (If the ratio of sulfonic acid imidazolide to alcoholate is 1 2, ethers are formed see Chapter 17). The mechanism of catalysis by base corresponds to that operative in the synthesis of carboxylic esters by the imidazolide method. Because of the more pronounced nucleophilic character of alkoxide ions, sulfonates can also be prepared in good yield by alcoholysis of their imidazolides in the presence of hydroxide ions i.e., with alcoholic sodium hydroxide. 45 Examples of syntheses of sulfonates are presented below. 

In an opposite manner to bases such as 1 and 2 in terms of reactivity, polymer-supported tosyl chloride equivalent 14 is able to capture alcohols as polymer-bound sulfonates 15, which are released as secondary amines, sulfides and alkylated imidazoles with primary amines, thiols and imidazoles as nucleophiles in a substitution process (Scheme 6) [24]. This technique has further been extended for the preparation of tertiary amines [25] and esters [26]. Excess of amine was scavenged by polymer-supported isocyanate 16 [27, 28] while excess of carboxylic acid was removed by treatment with aminomethylated polystyrene 17. 

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